1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a nail set, in particular a soffit nail set, for use as an overhead device in driving nails into the soffit or other work piece, and to its particular manner of construction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When driving nails into wood or other substrates, one must be extremely careful not to drive the nail too deep into the substrate, else the substrate may be marred by the hammerhead, or other driving tool. However, the nail should not protrude outwardly from the work piece and should be driven into the workpiece or substrate the entire length of the shank of, e.g., a headed nail.
Over the years, various nail drivers and sets have been developed to provide better and more accurate setting of a nail without attendant marring of the work piece. Nail sets, in general, compromise a punch holder in combination with a punch. One end of the punch is hit a blow by a hammer or the like and the other end in contact with a nail transmits the blow to the nail, driving it into the work piece. These devices ordinarily work best with a predetermined maximum length of nail, and when used with such a nail do not allow penetration of the nail into the work piece below a certain depth. The devices are sometimes provided with means to prevent a punch from falling out of the holder, particularly if the nail set device is used in inverted position on overhead work.
In U.S. Pat. No. 924,054 there is provided a nail setter comprising a punch holder and punch in which the punch holder is provided with caps on each end thereof so as to limit forward and rearward movement of the punch or plunger. When using the device for overhead work, the plunger is first pushed upward to its forward limit and is there set by a thumbpiece provided on the device to prevent the plunger dropping back by gravity.
There is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,575,582, a nail driver and set in which forward movement of the plunger is limited by the upper end of the plunger, i.e., the blow receiving head, which is of somewhat greater diameter than the bore of the punch holder. To prevent the driving pin or plunger from becoming disengaged from the punch holder, as disclosed in the patent, a key is optionally provided on the holder which extends therefrom into a longitudinal groove or key-way on the punch.
The driving head of the plunger in U.S. Pat. No. 1,776,646, as in U.S. Pat. No. 1,575,582, is of greater diameter than the bore of the holder thereby limiting the driving movement of the plunger relative to the barrel of the holder. To prevent disengagement of the plunger from the barrel, as by gravity, a split ring is provided in combination with the plunger which engages with the bore of the holder.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,725,558, forward movement of the plunger or driver is limited by a shoulder on the punch holder. Nails are held in position by springs located in the end of the punch holder so as to prevent their being driven into the work piece at an undesired angle.
While the various nail sets that I am aware of provide satisfactory performance in certain situations, I am not aware of any that have been found satisfactory in driving nails into the aluminum soffit on providing this siding material on houses. This results not only from the fact that the soffit offers too narrow a space for satisfactory seating of the punch holder, but also because the nail holder is constructed of metal. Thus, contact between the metal nail set and the aluminum soffit, often results in marring and scratching of the aluminum surface. The use of a hammer without using a nail set is also unsatisfactory because of the size of the hammerhead, as well as this material of construction.